[CommsDay – 11 November 2021]
EXCLUSIVE: Canopus Networks taps Equinix to roll out SaaS-based user experience analytics globally
Australian analytics software provider Canopus Networks is partnering with Equinix to provide network service providers and large enterprises with SaaS-based access to its Telescope analytics platform. Already embedded in a number of Tier 1 telco customers, the new SaaS service will broaden the vendor’s addressable market to more service providers and more geographies.
To lead its global push, Canopus has hired two senior VP sales – Jason Roberts forAPAC and Greg Marzullo for North America.
Canopus CEO Dr Vijay Sivaraman told CommsDay “Canopus has already demonstrated immediate and differentiated value to large tier 1 telco customers,” he said.“This collaboration with Equinix accelerates our ability to provide this same value globally to other network operators in the telco, service provider, cloud and enterprise space. They can quickly and cost-effectively take advantage of the unique Canopus AI solution with almost no setup costs and no need to purchase any hardware.”
“For our international expansion, we will lead with the SaaS model, because we find the uptake is faster, in collaboration with Equinix, and simultaneously pursue the traditional embedded solution with Tier 1 telcos, which has a longer sales cycle.”
“At present our focus is on consumer broadband, but the Canopus AI technology is encryption agnostic and therefore suitable for enterprise SD-WAN and secure access service edge as well,” he added.
Telescope is a multiTerabit software platform that analyses encrypted network traffic using AI to track every application stream. Operators are alerted when user experience drops below defined thresholds. Telescope analytics help operators optimise their network peerings, provisioning, and planning to reduce capex and opex. Sivaraman said it can also form the basis of new revenue-generating value-add services such as gaming and other popular applications.
“Existing solutions for application visibility are being defeated by encryption, and struggle to scale cost-effectively to Terabit speeds,” he said. “The…platform is built on emerging P4-programmable switches, scaling effortlessly to Terabit speeds. Further, the platform uses patented Canopus FlowPulse technology that employs trained AI engines to classify and track application lows based on their stochastic behaviour, and is therefore agnostic to packet encryption.”
“Telescope is now available as a cloud-hosted multi-tenanted solution on Platform Equinix, and can be consumed in a SaaS manner on a monthly or quarterly basis,” he said. “At present we have kit in Equinix Sydney (SY3) and are planning to roll out to other Australian cities in the coming months as we acquire more Tier 2 and Tier 3 operators locally.”
Equinix managing director of Australia, Guy Danskine said “Equinix provides inter-connection and digital infrastructure services for the world’s key network operators, cloud providers and enterprises. Our collaboration with Canopus enables us to offer more value to our customers by providing them with an easy-to-implement, powerful tool that will illuminate what is happening in their networks and the user experience that they are delivering.”
With the SaaS model Sivaraman said network operators housed at Equinix need only insert optical taps (10/25/40/100G) on the links for which monitoring is sought and cross-connect the traffic to the Canopus rack in the same facility. All analytics dashboards and reporting are available via a portal for a monthly/quarterly fee with no lock-in contracts.
Early Canopus SaaS adopter, former CountryTell chairman and director Chris Deere, said “The Telescope analytics platform at Equinix is providing us accurate, millisecond scale data on application experience across our user base, and helping us identify and tune areas of our fixed wireless and NBN networks to best deliver the desired user experience across a range of business and residential applications. Telescope provides a level of detail we have not been able to achieve with traditional tools.”
Simon Dux